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Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, Volume 2
 Winning Ways
for Your Mathematical Plays

Ɔ
Volume 2, Second Edition

Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, Richard K. Guy

A K Peters
Natick, Massachusetts
Editorial, Sales, and Customer Service Office

A K Peters, Ltd.
63 South Avenue
Natick, MA 01760

Copyright © 2003 by A K Peters, Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informa-
tion storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Berlekamp, Elwyn R.
Winning Ways for your mathematical plays / Elwyn Berlekamp, John H. Conway,
Richard Guy.--2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56881-130-6 (v. 1) – ISBN 1-56881-142-X (v. 2) – ISBN 1-56881-143-8 (v. 3) –
ISBN 1-56881-144-6 (v. 4) (alk.paper)
1. Mathematical recreations. I. Conway, John Horton. II. Guy Richard K. III. Title.

QA95 .B446 2000

739.7’4--dc21 00-048541

Printed in Canada

07 06 05 04 03 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Martin Gardner
who has brought more mathematics to more millions than anyone else
Elwyn Berlekamp was born in Dover, Ohio, on September 6, 1940. He
has been Professor of Mathematics and of Electrical Engineering/Com-
puter Science at UC Berkeley since 1971. He has also been active in
several technology business ventures. In addition to writing many jour-
nal articles and several books, Berlekamp also has 12 patented inven-
tions, mostly dealing with algorithms for synchronization and error
correction.

He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National

Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. From 1994 to 1998, he was chairman of the board of trust-
ees of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI).

John H. Conway was born in Liverpool, England, on December 26,

1937. He is one of the preeminent theorists in the study of finite
groups and the mathematical study of knots, and has written over 10
books and more than 140 journal articles.

Before joining Princeton University in 1986 as the John von Neumann

Distinguished Professor of Mathematics, Conway served as profes-
sor of mathematics at Cambridge University, and remains an hon-
orary fellow of Caius College. The recipient of many prizes in re-
search and exposition, Conway is also widely known as the inventor
of the Game of Life, a computer simulation of simple cellular “life,”
governed by remarkably simple rules.

Richard Guy was born in Nuneaton, England, on September 30, 1916.

He has taught mathematics at many levels and in many places—
England, Singapore, India, and Canada. Since 1965 he has been Pro-
fessor of Mathematics at the University of Calgary, and is now Fac-
ulty Professor and Emeritus Professor. The university awarded him
an Honorary Degree in 1991. He was Noyce Professor at Grinnell
College in 2000.

He continues to climb mountains with his wife, Louise, and they have
been patrons of the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides’ Ball
and recipients of the A. O. Wheeler award for Service to the Alpine
Club of Canada.
 Contents

Preface to Second Edition xiii

Preface xiv
Change of Heart xvii
9 If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! 277
All the King’s Horses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
We Can Join Any Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
How Remote Is a Horse? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
What If the First Horse to Get Stuck Wins? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
A Slightly Slower Join . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Moving Horses Impartially . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Cutting Every Cake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Eatcakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
When to Put Your Money on the Last Horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Slow Horses Join the Also-Rans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Let Them Eat Cake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
All the King’s Horses on a Quarter-Infinite Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Cutting Your Cakes and Eating Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
References and Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

10 Hot Battles Followed by Cold Wars 299

Cold Games — Numbers Are Still Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Hot Games — The Battle Is Joined ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Tolls, Timers and Tallies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Which Is the Best Option? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Hot Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Cold Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Tepid Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
A Tepid Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Select Boys and Girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Mrs. Grundy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
How to Play Misère Unions of Partizan Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Urgent Unions (Shotgun Weddings?) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Predeciders — Overriders and Suiciders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

ix
x Contents ♥

Falada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Two More Falada Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Baked Alaska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
A Felicitous Falada Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
The Rules for Tallies on Infinite Tolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325
Time May Be Shorther than You Think! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

11 Games Infinite and Indefinite 327

Infinite Enders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
The Infinite Ordinal Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Other Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
Infinite Nim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
The Infinite Sprague-Grundy and Smith Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Some Superheavy Atoms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Fixed, Mixed and Free . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
Onsides and Offsides, Upsums and Downsums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Stoppers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
on, off and dud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
How Big Is on? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
It’s Bigger than All of Them! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Sidling Towards a Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Sidling Picks Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
Stoppers Have Only One Side . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
’Tis!-’Tis n!-’Tis!-’Tis n!-... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Loopy Hackenbush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Disentangling Loopy Hackenbush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Loopily Infinite Hackenbush . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Sisyphus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
Living with Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Comparing Loopy Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
The Swivel Chair Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Stoppers Are Nice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350
Plumtrees Are Nicer! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Taking Care of Plumtrees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Working With Upsums and Downsums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
on, off and hot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
A Summary of Some Sum Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
The House of Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
The Degree of Loopiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Classes and Varieties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
No Highway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Backsliding Toads-and-Frogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Bach’s Carousel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Getting on in Checkers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Proof of the Sidling Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Answer to Exercise One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
tis and tisn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
upon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
♥ Contents xi

Backsliding Toads-and-Frogs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

KOs in Go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377
References and Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

12 Games Eternal – Games Entailed 379

Fair Shares and Varied Pairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
How Soon Can You Win? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
There May Be Open Positions (O-Positions) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Adders-and-Ladders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Just How Loopy Can You Get? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Corrall Automotive Betterment Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Sharing Out Other Kinds of Nut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Fair Shares and Unequal Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Sweets and Nuts, and Maybe a Date? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
The Additional Subtraction Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Horsefly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Selective and Subselective Compounds of Impartial Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Entailing Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
Sunny and Loony Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Calculating with Entailed Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
Nim with Entailing Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Goldbach’s Nim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Wyt Queens with Trains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Adding Tails to Prim and Dim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Complimenting Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
On-the-Rails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
De Bono’s L-Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Proving the Outcome Rules for Loopy Positions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Fair Shares and Unequal Partners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Were Your Ways Winning Enough? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Did You Move First in Horsefly? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
References and Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

13 Survival in the Lost World 413

Misère Nim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Reversible Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
The Endgame Proviso . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
The Awful Truth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
What’s Left of the Old Rules? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417
As Easy as Two and Two? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
The Misère Form of Grundy’s Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419
Animals and Their Genus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
What Can We With the Genus? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Firm, Fickle and Tame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Which Animals are Tame... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
... and Which are Restive? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Some Tame Animals in the Good Child’s Zoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
Misère Wyt Queens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426
xii Contents ♥

Jelly Beans and Lemon Drops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Stalking Adders and Taking Squares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429
“But What if They’re Wild?” Asks the Bad Child . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Misère Kayles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431
The Noah’s Ark Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432
The Half-Tame Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Guiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Dividing Rulers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436
Dawson, Officers, Grundy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438
All Subtraction Games Reduce to Nim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Prim and Dim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Proof of the Noah’s Ark Theorem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443
Misère Octal Games . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Stop Press: Even More Games are Tameable! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Glossary 453
Index 455
 Preface to the Second Edition

It’s high time that there was a second edition of Winning Ways.
Largely as a result of the first edition, and of John Conway’s On Numbers and Games,
which we are glad to say is also reappearing, the subject of combinatorial games has burgeoned
into a vast area, bringing together artificial intelligence experts, combinatorists, and computer
scientists, as well as practitioners and theoreticians of particular games such as Go, Chess,
Amazons and Konane: games much more interesting to play than the simple examples that
we needed to introduce our theory.
Just as the subject of combinatorics was slow to be accepted by many “serious” mathemati-
cians, so, even more slowly, is that of combinatorial games. But now it has achieved consid-
erable maturity and is giving rise to an extensive literature, documented by Aviezri Fraenkel
and exemplified by the book Mathematical Go: Chilling Gets the Last Point by Berlekamp
and Wolfe. Games are fun to play and it’s more fun the better you are at playing them.
The subject has become too big for us to do it justice even in the four-volume work that we
now offer. So we’ve contented ourselves with a minimum of necessary changes to the original
text (we are proud that our first formulations have so well withstood the test of time), with
additions to the Extras at the ends of the chapters, and with the insertion of many references
to guide the more serious student to further reading. And we’ve corrected some of the one
hundred and sixty-three mistakes.
We are delighted that Alice and Klaus Peters have agreed to publish this second edition.
Their great experience, and their competent and cooperative staff, notably Sarah Gillis and
Kathryn Maier, have been invaluable assets during its production. And of course we are
indebted to the rapidly growing band of people interested in the subject. If we mention one
name we should mention a hundred; browse through the Index and the References at the end of
each chapter. As a start, try Games of No Chance, the book of the workshop that we organized
a few years ago, and look out for its successor, More Games of No Chance, documenting the
workshop that took place earlier this year.

Elwyn Berlekamp, University of California, Berkeley

John Conway, Princeton University
Richard Guy, The University of Calgary, Canada

November 3, 2000

xiii
 Preface

Does a book need a Preface? What more, after fifteen years of toil, do three talented authors
have to add. We can reassure the bookstore browser, “Yes, this is just the book you want!”
We can direct you, if you want to know quickly what’s in the book, to the last pages of this
preliminary material. This in turn directs you to Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and Volume 4.
We can supply the reviewer, faced with the task of ploughing through nearly a thousand
information-packed pages, with some pithy criticisms by indicating the horns of the polylemma
the book finds itself on. It is not an encyclopedia. It is encyclopedic, but there are still
too many games missing for it to claim to be complete. It is not a book on recreational
mathematics because there’s too much serious mathematics in it. On the other hand, for us, as
for our predecessors Rouse Ball, Dudeney, Martin Gardner, Kraitchik, Sam Loyd, Lucas, Tom
O’Beirne and Fred. Schuh, mathematics itself is a recreation. It is not an undergraduate text,
since the exercises are not set out in an orderly fashion, with the easy ones at the beginning.
They are there though, and with the hundred and sixty-three mistakes we’ve left in, provide
plenty of opportunity for reader participation. So don’t just stand back and admire it, work
of art though it is. It is not a graduate text, since it’s too expensive and contains far more
than any graduate student can be expected to learn. But it does carry you to the frontiers of
research in combinatorial game theory and the many unsolved problems will stimulate further
discoveries.
We thank Patrick Browne for our title. This exercised us for quite a time. One morning,
while walking to the university, John and Richard came up with “Whose game?” but realized
they couldn’t spell it (there are three tooze in English) so it became a one-line joke on line
one of the text. There isn’t room to explain all the jokes, not even the fifty-nine private ones
(each of our birthdays appears more than once in the book).
Omar started as a joke, but soon materialized as Kimberley King. Louise Guy also helped
with proof-reading, but her greater contribution was the hospitality which enabled the three
of us to work together on several occasions. Louise also did technical typing after many drafts
had been made by Karen McDermid and Betty Teare.
Our thanks for many contributions to content may be measured by the number of names
in the index. To do real justice would take too much space. Here’s an abridged list of helpers:
Richard Austin, Clive Bach, John Beasley, Aviezri Fraenkel, David Fremlin, Solomon Golomb,
Steve Grantham, Mike Guy, Dean Hickerson, Hendrik Lenstra, Richard Nowakowski, Anne
Scott, David Seal, John Selfridge, Cedric Smith and Steve Tschantz.

xiv
♥ Preface xv

No small part of the reason for the assured success of the book is owed to the well-informed
and sympathetic guidance of Len Cegielka and the willingness of the staff of Academic Press
and of Page Bros. to adapt to the idiosyncrasies of the authors, who grasped every opportunity
to modify grammar, strain semantics, pervert punctuation, alter orthography, tamper with
traditional typography and commit outrageous puns and inside jokes.
Thanks also to the Isaak Walton Killam Foundation for Richard’s Resident Fellowship
at The University of Calgary during the compilation of a critical draft, and to the National
(Science & Engineering) Research Council of Canada for a grant which enabled Elwyn and
John to visit him more frequently than our widely scattered habitats would normally allow.
And thank you, Simon!

University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 Elwyn Berlekamp

University of Cambridge, England, CB2 1SB John H. Conway
University of Calgary, Canada, T2N 1N4 Richard Guy
November 1981
 Change of Heart!
New styles of architecture, a change of heart.
Wystan Hugh Auden, Sir, no man’s enemy.

I have heard her declare, under the rose, that Hearts was her favourite suit.
Charles Lamb, Essays of Elia, Mrs. Battle’s Opinions on Whist.

So far our compound games have been played by two players who move alternately in just
one component at a time, and the rules have ensured that they always end, the last player
to move being the winner. Now for a change of heart, let’s see what happens when we break
some of these rules.
In Chapter 9, you must move in every component, and in Chapter 10, you can move in
whatever components you like.
In Chapter 11, there are some partizan games with infinitely many positions, and some
other loopy games in which play might continue forever.
Chapter 12 deals with the rather different theory of impartial loopy games, and with
some other modifications of the impartial theory, which might allow a player to make several
consecutive moves.
Chapter 13 gives the theory of impartial games when the last player is declared to be the
loser.

xvii
 -9-
If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em!

Remote from towns he ran his godly race.

Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, l. 143.

This suspense is terrible. I hope it will last.

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, III.

All the King’s Horses

In sums of games it is a move in just one part that counts as a move in the sum. Now we
consider the join of several games in which we must move in every part.

Figure 1. How Horses Head for Home.

277
278 Chapter 9. If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! ♥

We shall play our first few games on the 8 by 8 chessboard illustrated in Fig. 1 with a
number of horses. As his move, Left must move every horse he can two places West and one
place North or South; Right, for his part, must move every horse he can two places North and
one place East or West, as in Fig. 1. So the horses move rather like knights in Chess, but there
are several differences. Each player is limited to just 2 of the possibly 8 directions a knight
can move in; there may be arbitrarily many horses on the same square; and the same horse
is moved by both players (the horses belong to the King, not to Left or Right). Compare the
White Knight in Chapter 3.
A player will be unable to move in the game if there is any one horse which he can’t move.
According to the normal play rule he would then lose, but in this chapter we shall also give
equal treatment to the misère play rule under which he would win.

We Can Join Any Games

Our game can be regarded as made by joining together a number of one-horse games. In fact
any games
G, H, K, . . .
can be played simultaneously like this to obtain a compound game

G ∧ H ∧ K ∧ ... (“G and H and K and . . .”)

called the conjunctive compound by Smith and in ONAG, but here, for short, their join.
To move in the compound game you must make a move legal for you in every one of the
component games
G, H, K, . . .
rather than in just one, as in the sum or disjunctive compound. If you cannot do so you lose
in normal play, but win in misère play.

How Remote Is a Horse?

Everything depends on the first horse to finish, for this stops the whole game. (In this game a
horse finishes when the player whose turn it is cannot move him.) If one horse–the favorite–
seems nearer to finishing than the others you should treat it with particular care. Move it so
as to win quickly if you can, and otherwise so as to postpone defeat as long as possible in the
hope of bringing up a more favorable horse to finish first–in short:
♥ How Remote Is a Horse? 279

The maxim holds for joins of any games. When we know who starts, a game played in this
way lasts for a perfectly definite number of moves which C.A.B. Smith has called its Steinhaus
function or remoteness.
We use the term left remoteness when Left starts, and right remoteness when Right
starts. Since the turns alternate, we need only consider the Right remotenesses of Left’s options
and the left remotenesses of Right’s. You should try to leave an even remoteness (as small as
possible) for your opponent, so as to ensure that when the remoteness is reduced to zero it
will be his turn to move. This is because (in normal play)

P-positions have even remoteness

N -positions have odd remoteness

So remotenesses can be worked out by the rules:

For the left remoteness of G in

normal play, take
1 more than the LEAST EVEN right remoteness
of any GL which has even right remoteness,
otherwise
1 more than the GREATEST ODD right remoteness
if all GL have odd right remoteness,
and finally
0, if G has no left option.

Or, more concisely:

FOR NORMAL PLAY

Use
1 + LEAST EVEN
if possible,
1 + GREATEST ODD
if not, or
ZERO
if you’ve no option.

To find the right remoteness, use the left remotenesses of the right options, GR , but still
prefer LEAST EVEN else GREATEST ODD.
280 Chapter 9. If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! ♥

+ + − −
RL RR (normal play) RL RR (misère play)
00 00 10 10 10 10 10 10 00 00 10 10 10 10 10 10
00 00 10 10 10 10 10 10 00 00 20 30 30 30 30 30
01 01 11 12 12 12 12 12 01 02 22 42 52 52 52 52
01 01 21 22 22 32 32 32 01 03 24 44 64 74 74 74
01 01 21 22 22 32 32 32 01 03 25 46 66 86 96 96
01 01 21 23 23 33 34 34 01 03 25 47 68 88 A8 B8
01 01 21 23 23 43 44 44 01 03 25 47 69 8A AA CA
01 01 21 23 23 43 44 44 01 03 25 47 69 8B AC BB
(a) First horse stuck loses. (b) First horse stuck wins.

+ + − −
RL RR (normal with pass) RL RR (misère with pass)
00 00 12 12 34 34 56 56 00 00 12 12 45 56 56 56
00 00 12 12 34 34 56 56 00 00 23 34 34 34 67 78
21 21 11 14 34 36 56 56 21 32 22 42 42 56 56 56
21 21 41 44 44 56 56 76 21 43 24 44 54 64 74 77
43 43 43 44 44 56 56 76 54 43 24 45 66 76 86 76
43 43 63 65 65 55 58 76 65 43 65 46 67 66 98 A8
65 65 65 65 65 85 88 86 65 76 65 47 68 89 88 B9
65 65 65 67 67 67 68 66 65 87 65 77 67 8A 9B AA
(c) First horse home wins. (d) First horse home loses.

R+ (normal impartial) R− (misère impartial)

0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 0 0 1 1 3 4 3 3
0 0 1 1 2 2 3 3 0 0 2 3 2 2 4 5
1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 2 2 2 2 4 4 4
1 1 1 3 3 3 3 5 1 3 2 3 4 5 6 5
2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 3 2 2 4 5 4 5 6
2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 4 2 4 5 4 7 6 7
3 3 3 3 5 5 5 5 3 4 4 6 5 6 7 6
3 3 3 5 5 5 5 6 3 5 4 5 6 7 6 7
(x) First horse home wins. (y) First horse home loses.

Table 1. How Remote Are All the Horses? (A=10, B=11, C=12.)
♥ What If the First Horse to Get Stuck Wins? 281

Figure 2. How Remote Is a Horse?

Table 1(a) gives the left and right remotenesses (in normal play) for horses in every possible
position. See how a 0 on the left side corresponds to a position from which Left cannot move.
Figure 2 illustrates a case with larger remotenesses. Here Left’s two options have (right)
remotenesses 0 and 1; of these he prefers the only even number, 0, and adds 1 to obtain 1.
Right’s two options have (left) remoteness 1 (not much choice!) and he adds 1 to obtain 2.

What If the First Horse to Get Stuck Wins?

In the misère play version, winner and loser are interchanged and so the players will prefer
to move to odd rather than even. The rule for computing the misère play remotenesses is
therefore, in condensed form:

FOR MISÈRE PLAY

Use
1 + LEAST ODD
if possible,
1 + GREATEST EVEN
if not, or
ZERO
if you’ve no option.

Table 1(b) gives the misère play remotenesses for our game.
Since, in either case, a join of games finishes when its first component does, its remoteness
(of any kind) is the least remoteness (of the same kind) of any of the components:
282 Chapter 9. If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! ♥

+
RL (G ∧ H ∧ . . .) = min(R+ +
L (G), RL (H), . . .),
+ + +
RR (G ∧ H ∧ . . .) = min(RR (G), RR (H), . . .),
− − −
RL (G ∧ H ∧ . . .) = min(RL (G), RL (H), . . .),
− −
RR (G ∧ H ∧ . . .) = min(RR (G), R−
R (H), . . .).

In this and similar contexts we use:

L for Left starting,
R for Right starting,
+ for normal play,
− for misère play.

To win, move to a position for which

your opponent ’s remoteness is
EVEN in NORMAL play,
ODD in MISÈRE play.

Let’s see who wins

in MISÈRE play.
The left remotenesses of the two horses are 10 and 11 (A and B) so the left remoteness
of the position as a whole is the least of these, 10. Since this is even, Left has a good move
which changes this to the ODD number 9, but the right remotenesses of these horses are 12
and 11 (C and B), minimum 11, and so from this position Right has no good move. Left’s
favorite horse is the left one, but Right’s is the right one, even though this seems further from
finishing.
♥ A Slightly Slower Join 283

A Slightly Slower Join

We can get a more interesting game by changing the rules slightly. If one player cannot move
some horse which the opponent could, we may allow him to make a pass move for that horse,
but he must still make proper moves with all the horses he can. The game will now end as
soon as the first horse reaches home, the top left 2 by 2 square, since then neither player
can move this horse and passes are not allowed. The normal and misère remotenesses for
this version are shown in Tables 1(c) and (d). They are calculated in exactly the same way,
but taking account of the new pass moves. For the position whose misère remotenesses are
being computed in Fig. 3, Left has a proper move to a position of right remoteness 3, so his
remoteness is 1 + 3 = 4. Right has no proper move, but has a pass move to the same position
with Left to move, so his remoteness is 1 + 4 = 5.

Figure 3. Right’s a Bit More Remote Because He’s Stuck.

Moving Horses Impartially

As a further variant, we may make moves in all the four directions of Fig. 1 legal for both
players, so that the game becomes an impartial one, and there is no difference between the
left and right remotenesses of any position.
In Tables 1(x) and 1(y) for the normal and misère versions there is therefore only one digit
in each square.
For this game, the horse that seems to be ahead in
284 Chapter 9. If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! ♥

really is the favorite in normal play (remoteness 4 against two 5s), but the two trailing ones
are joint favorites in misère play (remotenesses 6 as against 7).
All these games may be played on any size of board, or even on a quarter-infinite one.
Table 5 (in the Extras) gives remotenesses for this latter case.

Cutting Every Cake

The game of Cutcake has a conjunctive version, Cutcakes, played with the same equipment
(see Fig. 3 of Chapter 2), in which Lefty must make a vertical cut (or Rita a horizontal one),
along a scored line, in every piece of cake. So the first player to produce the kind of strip in
which his opponent has no legal move, wins in normal play, loses in misère. Tables 2(a) and
2(b) give the remotenesses, and Fig. 4 indicates how they were calculated.

Figure 4. Lefty and Rita Ponder a 4 by 8 Cake.

In another version (Tables 2(c) and 2(d)) a player who cannot cut a particular piece of
cake may pass over that piece provided his opponent can still cut it. The game ends when the
first 1 by 1 cake appears, for this admits no cut by either player. So for a horizontal strip,
which cannot be cut by Rita, her remoteness is one more than Lefty’s.
In impartial Cutcakes (Tables 2(x) and 2(y)) the players must cut all the cakes, but each
may do so in either direction.
In some of these tables we have “writ large” some remotenesses which are the same for the
whole blocks of entries.
♥ Cutting Every Cake 285

Table 2. How Long It Takes to Cut Our Cakes.

286 Chapter 9. If You Can’t Beat ’Em, Join ’Em! ♥

Eatcakes
Remoteness tables for Eatcakes, a variant game which is more natural as a slow join (see
later), are given in the Extras (Table 7).

When to Put Your Money on the Last Horse

In our next variation of All the King’s Horses, an apparently trivial modification of the rules
produces a dramatic change in tactics. Last time we allowed you to pass for a horse you
couldn’t move only if your opponent could still move that horse. Now we allow you to pass
provided that there is any horse that one of you can still move, and the game only ends when
all the horses reach home. In normal play whoever takes the last horse home is the winner; he
is of course the loser in misère play.
In this game the race is not to the swift–it is the horse likely to be the last in the race
(the outsider) who must be moved with special care. If you think that you can win with him
you should try to win slowly, lest your opponent hold back another horse to make the race
finish in his favor. On the other hand if the outsider looks like he’s losing for you, take him
home quickly and hope to leave some more promising laggard on the course.

Slow Horses Join the Also-Rans

Our game exemplifies a new way of joining several games,

G, H, K, . . .

to produce a compound,

G H K ... (“G also H also K also . . .”)

called the continued conjunctive compound in ONAG, and here, the slow join. Our previous
kind of join may be called the rapid join when we need to avoid confusion. In the slow join of
a number of games a player must move in every component he can, and the game ends only
when he cannot move anywhere.
The best tactics are a travesty of those for the rapid join — move slowly when you’re
winning, quickly when you’re losing ! The winner is anxious to savor his inexorable superiority
for as long as possible, while the loser wants to get it over with, but quick! Given who starts,
a game lasts, when played according to these cat and mouse tactics, for a perfectly definite
number of moves, called the suspense number.
We find these suspense numbers by a parody of the remoteness rules:
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 5. Draw out piston rod slowly, supporting it at both ends as it
leaves cylinder. Hold recoil valve in cylinder with ends of fingers.
Keep receptacle under front of cylinder to catch surplus oil.
6. Drain surplus oil from piston rod by holding vertically over
receptacle with piston down and holding buffer rod in place.
7. Rest piston rod on blocks, remove buffer-bushing locking screw,
and unscrew buffer bushing, holding piston rod by wrench on flats at
front end of rod. Have supporting blocks under both ends of rod so
that rod will not be strained.
8. Draw out buffer rod carefully.
9. Draw out recoil valve with fingers. Remaining parts can now be
easily disassembled. Buffer head is locked in place with bronze pin,
which must be driven out before head can be unscrewed.

III. To Assemble Recoil Cylinder.

This operation is the reverse of II. Be sure that all gaskets and
locking screws and pins are replaced and are in good condition. Be
sure that all parts of mechanism are perfectly clean and dry, and that
oil is clean. Oil must be strained through double thickness of clean
cloth and if clean oil is not available use new oil. Do not make piston-
rod gland too tight. Tighten with hand and screw up with wrench one
additional notch to lock gland. Fill recoil cylinder before replacing on
carriage, as follows:
(a) With drain plug in place and filling plugs out, pour hydroline oil
into filling hole slowly to avoid the formation of air bubbles.
(b) When oil is level in filling-plug openings, tilt cylinder slightly to
allow escape of air and replenish oil.
(c) Loosen filling plug in front end of piston rod enough to allow oil
to drip, and tighten plug.
(d) Replace rear filling plug, raise front of cylinder about 6 inches,
and tap cylinder lightly with wood block or lead hammer to remove
air. Level cylinder, fill, and replace front filling plug. Be sure that all
gaskets are in place and properly centered.
Note.—After recoil mechanism has been disassembled and
replaced on carriage gun should be retracted 46 inches and eased
back into battery slowly to be sure that it is properly reassembled.

IV. To Dismount Gun.

1. Remove recoil cylinder (see I) and breechblock (see VI).
2. Raise and block up trails in horizontal position, elevate gun until
axis of bore is parallel with trails, and attach retracting mechanism
(see I-7) to left spring rod, retract gun about 6 inches, remove 3-16-
inch split pin in left spring-rod key, and drive out key with bronze drift.
Ease gun into battery slowly and permit further forward movement of
spring rod until rope is slack and front end of spring-rod rests against
spring cylinder cover.
3. Transfer retracting apparatus to right spring-rod, retract gun
about ¼ inch, remove split pin and spring-rod key, ease gun into
battery until spring-rod rests against spring-cylinder cover, and
detach retracting mechanism.
Note.—In this position full pressure of springs is against cylinder
cover and gun is free to slide in ways. Men should be kept from in
front of spring-cylinder and care must be exercised to prevent tipping
of cradle to the rear, which may cause gun to slide off.
4. Bring gun to maximum depression.
5. Lower trails to ground, spread trails against wheels, set brake,
and bring gun to zero elevation.
6. Requires seven men and four pick handles or implements of
almost the same length and strength. Slide gun about 36 inches to
the rear by hand, place one pick handle in bore of gun at breech with
one man, one pick handle with a man on each side under gun slides
at front of cradle, and four men with two pick handles under gun as
gun is drawn out.
 7. Push gun out of ways, supported by men, and remove.
Note.—In using pick handles do not place them under dust guards
at gun lugs. Care must be taken to keep gun properly supported at
same level as cradle guides at all points until free of guides.
In remounting gun on cradle be sure that ways are well oiled and
ways and slides thoroughly clean. Mounting gun is the reverse of IV.

V. To Remove Counter-recoil Springs.

1. Close and latch trails. (Open spring-cylinder cover.)
2. Set brake and drive one spade (to secure carriage).
3. Remove breechblock (see VI.)
4. Attach spring-compressor to right spring rod (see I-7).
5. Secure single block of retracting apparatus to fixed point, such
as “dead man,” driven spade, or tree. The holding power of this fixed
point must be at least equivalent to a driven spade and attaching
point of rope should not be higher than center of spring rod.
Note.—Sufficient slack of rope must be allowed to permit spring
compressor to travel full length of spring cylinder and be detached
from spring rod at front end.
6. Retract gun about 6 inches, remove split pin in spring-rod key
and drive out spring-rod key with bronze drift.
7. Release retracting mechanism gradually until spring
compressor rope is slack, draw spring rod out of front end of spring
cylinder, and detach spring compressor.
8. Attach retracting mechanism to spring rod, right.
9. Retract spring rod about ½ inch, remove split pin, and drive out
spring-rod key.
10. Release retracting mechanism gradually until spring
compressor rope is slack, draw spring rod out of front end of spring-
cylinder and detach spring compressor.
 Note.—Assembly of counter-recoil springs is reverse of removal.
The following precautions must be observed in assembling:
(a) If tension-spring compressor brings spring rod up solid against
spring cylinder bushing in rear of spring cylinder, ease off rope
slightly and pry up rod with bronze drift until it will enter the bushing.
(b) Before key slot enters gun lug see that keyways in spring-rods
and keyways in gun lugs are in line. If not, turn spring-rod by means
of drift until keyways are in line.

VI. To Remove Breechblock.

1. Remove operating-shaft detent, slide operating handle to the
right as far as the chain will permit, remove 1-16 inch split pin from
studlink pin.
2. Remove chain, piston rod, spring piston, piston-rod nut, and
locknut as a unit by drawing out of closing-spring case.
3. Remove closing spring from case.
Note.—For complete instructions regarding disassembly of the
breech mechanism see page 19.
4. Remove trigger-shaft detent split pin and trigger-shaft detent by
drawing it out of the breechblock to the right.
5. Remove trigger shaft by prying gently straight down with screw
driver or similar tool. Keep breechblock supported for all succeeding
operations.
6. Remove operating handle by sliding to the right and off
operating shaft.
7. Remove operating shaft by sliding to the left.
8. Raise breechblock as far as possible (about 3-8 inch), move
bottom part of operating arm to the rear, and remove operating arm.
9. Remove breechblock by sliding down free of breech ring.
10. Remove extractors by sliding toward center line of gun.
 VII. To Replace Piston Rod Gland Packing.
(Packing, 4 rings, 5-16-inch square Garlock hydraulic packing.)
(Gun in battery or cylinder removed.)
1. Remove lower split pin from gland lock, swing gland lock up out
of notch in gland.
2. Unscrew gland with special wrench and slide forward on rod.
3. Remove packing with bent wire.
4. Insert five rings of new packing, one ring at a time, and push
each ring home with packing tool of copper or hardwood to fit into
gland recess. Break joints in rings and tap packing tool lightly with
hammer to drive each ring of packing home.
5. Screw up gland by hand and not more than three additional
notches with wrench so that gland lock will catch and replace split
pin.
Note.—For the first few rounds after inserting new packing there
will be some leakage at gland and occasional tightening will be
necessary. Gland should not be screwed up tight with a wrench, as it
can be made sufficiently tight by hand to prevent leakage if properly
packed.

VIII. To Remove Wheel.

1. Raise and support carriage under equalizing gear near each
end (about 12” each side of center.)
2. Disengage hubcap latch; unscrew and remove hubcap.
3. Disengage wheel fastening plunger and remove wheel
fastening.
4. Remove wheel.

IX. To Remove Shields.

 A. Top shield.—1. Remove four ⅜” pins, two ⅜” locking pins, and
lift off shield.
B. Apron.—1. Remove four ⅜” hinge pins and remove apron.
C. Cradle Shield.—1. Remove two 3/32” split pins, nuts and bolts.
On carriages number 625 to number 678 inclusive, remove two
cradle shield extensions.
D. Main Shield, left.—1. Remove six ½” bolts from shield bracket
outer left. 2. Remove three ⅜” bolts from shield socket, inner left. 3.
Lift off shield.
Main Shield, right—1. Remove right wheel (see VII). 2. Remove
½” pin from brake band end, remove adjusting nut and force (by
hand) brake band out of position, to clear main shield, right. 3.
Remove four ½” bolts from shield bracket, outer right, and two ½”
bolts from brake lever bracket. Remove two 2/16” bolts from tool and
remove tool carrier. Remove three ⅜” bolts from shield bracket, inner
right. 4. Lift out shield.

X. To Remove Spring Cylinder.

1. Remove recoil cylinder (I), gun (IV), counter recoil springs (V),
sight (XI) and shields (IX).
2. Remove trunnion caps (right and left) by raking out four split
pins, loosening swing bolt nuts, and withdrawing ½” trunnion cap
pins.
3. Remove rocker stops (right and left) by taking out four split pins
and ⅜” bolts.
4. Unlatch and spread trails.
Note.—Seven men and four pick handles (or similar implements)
are required for succeeding operations.
5. Post two men with one pick handle at rear, two men with one
pick handle immediately in front of elevating arc, and two men with
one pick handle at front end of spring cylinder.
 6. Raise cradle slowly, slightly to the rear until rocker clears top
carriage. Carry to the rear sufficiently to rest middle pick handle in
trunnions and transfer two men with handle to rear of carriage.
Continue to the rear sufficiently to rest front pick handle in trunnions,
transfer men to rear, and remove spring cylinder.

XI. To Remove Sight.

1. Remove three ⅜” bolts from rocker arm, left.
2. Remove one ⅜” pin from sight lever in left trunnion.
3. Remove sight and sight link.

XII. To Remove Rocker and Rocker Arms.

1. Remove spring cylinder (see X).
2. Remove two 3/32” split pins, with ⅜” nuts and bolts, two ⅜” cap
screws with lock washers, four ⅛” screws, driving out four O.247” by
O.34” by O.872” keys from rocker arms, right and left.
3. Remove rocker arm, left, by sliding up and out of rocker.
4. Remove cross-shaft bearing cover by taking out three 3/32” split
pins and removing three 3/16” nuts.
5. Drive out ⅛” pin from intermediate shaft pinion, remove two ⅛”
split pins, two ½” nuts, one ⅛” split pin, and one ½” cap screw from
rocker-arm cap and remove rocker-arm cap.
6. Lift out elevating handwheel and handwheel shaft as a unit.
7. Draw intermediate shaft up and out of rocker-arm brace, draw
rocker down from trunnions (keeping in line with rocker-arm
bearings) and remove. Swing rocker arm, right, up and around
trunnions until free of range-scale bracket and remove.

XIII. To Remove Top Carriage.

 1. Remove spring cylinder (see X) rocker and rocker arms (see
XII).
2. Remove angle of site bracket, left, by removing three split pins
and nuts from ⅜” bolts in angle of site bracket cover, left, taking off
cover, removing nut and split pin from traversing handwheel shaft,
removing handwheel and drawing shaft out to the left.
3. Remove two split pins and ¼” nuts from cross shaft pinion case
(left) bolts, extract bolts, and remove case.
4. Remove cross shaft pinion case, right, as in XIII-3.
5. Remove split pins and two nuts from cross shafts, right and left.
6. Remove split pins and nuts from four ½” studs securing angle of
site bracket, left, and remove bracket with attached parts as a unit.
7. Remove angle of site bracket, right, as in XII-5.
8. Draw out cross shafts, right and left, and remove cross shaft
pinions, right and left.
9. Traverse top carriage to the right (by turning intermediate shaft
gear by hand) sufficiently to allow traversing stop, rear to be
removed. Extract split pin, remove nut, and take off traversing stop,
rear.
10. Traverse top carriage to the left until traversing worm is
disengaged from rack, remove split pins and nuts from four studs
securing traversing worm shaft bearing to top carriage, and remove
bearing and attached parts as a unit.
11. Lift out traversing worm with attached parts as a unit.
12. Turn top carriage to the right 90 degrees from zero azimuth,
remove three screws that attach traversing rack to pintle bearing and
remove traversing rack.
13. Turn top carriage to the right 90 degrees (180 degrees from
zero azimuth), remove four screws that attach dust guard to pintle
bearing and remove dust guard.
 14. Remove two screws that secure clip to pintle bearing and take
off clip.
15. Raise top carriage from pintle bearing.

XIV. To Remove Equalizing Gear and Pinions.

1. Remove top carriage (see XIII), wheels (see VIII), brake
mechanism (see XV) and trails (see XVI).
2. Turn pintle bearing bottom side up, remove 29 screws which
attach washers and binders and remove equalizing-gear cover.
3. Remove split pins and nuts from both locking ring-clamp bolts,
unscrew and remove rings (one right, one left).
4. Slide equalizing pinion off axle arms.
5. Remove split pins from right equalizing-gear bolts, hold nuts
tight, unscrew and remove bolt, remove nut and washer, remove left
equalizing-gear bolt, nut, and washer in the same manner.
6. Remove locking screw and equalizing-gear support (using
special wrench). Lift up and remove equalizing gear.

XV. To Remove Brake Mechanism.

1. Remove wheels (see VIII).
2. Remove brake bands, right and left, by extracting four split pins
and removing four brake pins from ends of brake shaft.
3. Remove one split pin from each type “A” pin securing brake
lever, foot to brake lever bracket and to sleeve extension. Remove
type “A” pins and brake lever.
4. Extract two split pins from brake lever sleeve near center of
carriage, draw out and remove brake shaft, left.
5. Remove shield bracket, outer right, brake shaft, right and brake
lever sleeve with all permanent parts attached, by removing main
shield (see IX, D and E), removing split pin and nut from
brakehanger bolt, taking out bolt, and sliding parts off axle arm.
6. Remove shield bracket, outer left, by removing split-pin, nut,
and brake hanger bolt and sliding brake hanger with permanent
parts attached, off axle arm.

XVI. To Remove Trails.

1. Support carriage at front of pintle bearing.
2. Remove two split pins and nuts from connection bolts, drive out
bolts with copper drift, slide trails to the rear and remove.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS.
Filling Recoil Cylinder (Cylinder Mounted on Carriage.)

If the recoil cylinder is not completely filled, loss of stability will

occur and there is danger of serious damage to material. Before
firing, a commissioned officer should always verify the filling of
cylinder by removing one filling plug (with gun level) in which case oil
should be visible above recoil valve.
To fill recoil cylinder when assembled to carriage, elevate the gun
about five degrees, remove both filling plugs and pour Hydroline oil
in slowly with funnel until oil appears at rear filling plug hole. Level
gun and again fill until oil appears at both filling holes. Shake
carriage gently and continue to refill slowly until air ceases to come
out of cylinder. Replace rear plug, elevate gun about five degrees,
remove valve turn-gear cover, and loosen plug in end of piston rod
sufficiently to allow oil to drip out. As soon as oil starts to drip, tighten
plug; be sure that gasket is centered. Replace rear filling plug, rock
carriage to permit air to escape from filling hole and fill with oil.
Replace plug, level gun, and perform same operation with rear filling
hole. When air is all out of cylinder, tighten both plugs and elevate to
five degrees, allow to stand for about five minutes, then remove front
plug and again refill. Loosen drain plug and drain out about ¼-gill of
oil into receptacle. Do not allow oil to run down into gun slides.
About four quarts of Hydroline oil is required to fill recoil cylinder.
Oil must be clean and free from dirt and should be strained through
clean linen or muslin cloth before using.
In emergencies glycerin and water, or any buffer or engine oils
may be used in recoil cylinders, but should be replaced by Hydroline
as soon as possible. Where the above liquids are used, all interior
parts of recoil mechanism must be emptied, disassembled,
thoroughly cleaned and dried before refilling.
 CHAPTER VIII
75-MM FIELD GUN MODEL 1917 (BRITISH).

Weights and Dimensions.

Weight 995 lbs.
Caliber 2.95 in.
Total length 88.21 in.
Length of bore 83.915 in.
Length of rifled portion 72.72 in.
Rifling 24 grooves, right hand twist, zero turns at the origin to 1 turn
in 75 in. (25.4 calibers) at 9.72 in. from the muzzle thence
uniform.

The Carriage.
Weight of carriage, complete 1950 lbs.
Weight of gun and carriage complete 2945 lbs.
Weight at end of trail carriage limbered 96 lbs.
Diameter of wheels 56 in.
Width of track 60 in.
Length of recoil 49 in.
Maximum angle of elevation 16 degrees
Maximum angle of depression 5 degrees
Maximum amount of traverse of gun on the carriage 142 mils

DESCRIPTION.
 The gun is a combination of a built up and a wire wrapped gun. It
consists of a tube, a series of layers of steel wire, jacket and breech
ring. The tube extends from the rear end of the chamber to the
muzzle. Over the rear portion of the tube are wound 15 layers of
O.04 by O.25” steel wire. The jacket is fitted over the wire and the
tube, and is secured longitudinally by corresponding shoulders and
the breech ring, which is screwed over the jacket at the rear, and
secured by a set screw. The breech ring is prepared for the reception
of the breech mechanism, and is provided on the upper side with a
lug for the attachment of the hydraulic buffer.

75 mm. Field Gun, Model of 1917 (British).

 75 mm Field Gun, Model of 1917 (British)
Breech Mechanism Assembled

The breechblock is of the swinging type, interrupted screw with

two threaded and two slotted sectors instead of the four we are
familiar with in the 3”. The firing mechanism is of the continuous pull
type.
The ammunition used is similar to that used with the American and
French types of 75s.

The Principal Parts of the Carriage are:

Trail
Top Carriage
Cradle
Recoil cylinder
Springs
Elevating gear
Range gear
 Traversing gear
Firing Mechanism
Brakes
Shield
Axle and wheels
Sights
Gravity tank

The trail is tubular. The top carriage houses bearings to receive

the cradle trunnions and in travel it is locked to the trail. The bronze
cradle pivots on the top carriage. The cradle trunnions support the
sight.
The recoil system is of the hydraulic-spring type. The recoil
cylinder is surrounded by the counter-recoil springs which in turn are
enclosed by a steel case—all of which is screwed on top of the
cradle above the gun. The system operates in the same manner as
the 3” materiel with the exception that it possesses the additional
feature of a gravity tank which replaces oil lost during firing.
75-mm. Gun Carriage, Model of 1917. (British)
Recoil Controlling System
 75 mm. Gun Carriage, Model of 1917. (British)
Plan

The elevating mechanism is of the doubled-ended screw type

with the independent angle of site. The gears are so arranged that
the elevation for range can be made without disturbing the laying for
difference in elevation of the gun and the target, that is, the line of
sight. The handwheel on the right is for range to the target while the
handwheel on the left is for the angle of site.
The traversing mechanism is of the pintle type, consisting of a
crosshead, link nut, and an actuating screw with a handwheel. It
permits of a 72 mil. traverse either side of the center. A scale strip
and a pointer indicate the angle of traverse.
The firing mechanism like that of the American 75 is located on
the left side of the gun instead of the right side as on the 3” and the
French 75. The gun can be fired when it is within 2 inches of the “in
battery” position, which increases the possible speed of firing.
 CHAPTER IX
THE 4.7” RIFLE, MODEL 1906.

GUN.
Weights and Dimensions.
Weight 2,688 lb.
Caliber 4.7 in.
Total length 134.92 in.
Length of bore 129.42 in.
Length of rifling 111.9 in.
Number of grooves 42
Twist Right hand.
Weight of proj. based fuse 60 lb.
Weight of proj. point fuse 45 lb.
Weight of powder charge 95 oz.
Muzzle velocity, 60 lb. proj. 1,700 ft. per second
Muzzle velocity, 45 lb. proj. 2,050 ft. per second
Maximum range 11,000 meters

THE CARRIAGE.
Weight of carriage complete 5,320 pounds
Weight of carriage and gun complete 8,068 pounds
Maximum elevation 15 degrees
Maximum depression 5 degrees
 Maximum traverse 140 mils.

The gun is built up and consists of a tube, jacket, locking hoop

and clip. The jacket covers the rear half of the tube and projects
beyond the tube at the rear to form the breech recess. The jacket
also has a recoil lug on the under side for connecting the recoil
cylinder. The clip is a short hoop near the muzzle and has guides
formed on it to guide the gun in the cradle on recoil. The jacket also
has guides formed on it. The length of the gun is approximately 11
feet.

4.7” Rifle

The breechblock is of the interrupted screw type having four

threaded and four plain sectors. It is operated by a handle which
swings from left to right turning and withdrawing the breech with one
motion. An extractor is fitted for throwing out the shell case when the
breech is opened after firing.